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Beliefs; Herb or Drug--Systems and Context

it's all medicine

Beliefs; Herb or Drug--Systems and Context

In the last post, I offered that despite what we believe (placebo/nocebo) about an herb/drug (or anything else), it does have a characteristic effect (actio) for the most part. And I who am saying this am an unapologetic magical thinker.

Despite my strong belief that belief (conscious or not) shapes experience, my experience has also been, e.g., that taking a big glug of passionflower tincture because I grabbed the wrong (and unlabeled) bottle made me catatonic in short order (and then I had to figure out what happened), and that a scoop of a BCAA product with whey not listed on the label (I believed was whey-free) led to rapid,  unwelcome  psychosis as whey reliably does for me.

Beliefs about herbs/drugs are influenced by contexts and systems too. And I'm a good candidate to speak to this, since I study and use herbs but also take meds that come in red plastic bottles from the pharmacy.

Herbal medicine is a system. Pharmaceutical medicine is another system. Most people I've asked think the difference between them is:

Herbal medicine uses plants (and some mineral compounds/resins, and some animal products, like ants or deer antler) whereas Pharma medicine uses materials synthesized in a lab. and/or:
Herbal medicine uses the whole, untampered-with "natural" material whereas Pharma medicine uses extracts and refinements and tweakery.

Neither one of these dichotomies is quite right. For example, MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), a sulfur-containing supplement purported to be excellent for muscles and joints and for wound and scar healing, can be found on both sides of the fence, and it's a synthesized product. Chitin, sold on the "conventional" side as a fat-binder, is nothing but the shelly parts of prawns and shrimp. And while nowadays these may be synthesized in a lab, aspirin (willow), chondroitin (shellfish), digitalin (heart remedy; foxglove), lithium (mineral found in ground and water) are all derived from "natural" medicines.

As for the whole versus extracted dichotomy, yes but: what is an infusion? What's a decoction? What's a tincture? Well, an infusion, where a nonaromatic plant part (usually leaves or flowers, sometimes roots) is steeped in water for several hours, is more of a gentle, nutritive medicine, more at the food level, like a broth. But a decoction, where a highly aromatic plant is boiled down for several hours, or a tincture, where plant material is soaked in alcohol for several weeks--even if it comes from a whole plant, these are extractive processes. And then tinctures and decoctions can be combined, or made into syrups, as further evolutions.

This is taking the active compounds in a plant and amplifying them to be most salient and available. (Which is why I could drink a cup of passionflower tea (tea=steeped for a few minutes, not as strong as infusion) and feel pleasantly mellow, whereas taking a glug of the unlabeled tincture put my surprised ass on the floor.)

Obviously, these extractions are much more similar to Pharma drugs.

Okay, then. So I used to think the distinction between them was this:
Herbal medicine acknowledges that the same remedy can have wildly different effects on different people whereas Pharma medicine believes that each ill has a matching pill regardless of the patient.
Well, if any Pharma doctor ever believed that, they can't believe it anymore! One really good thing psychotropic medicine has done is to show what a CRAPSHOOT medication is! And that's without even thinking about the cover-your-ass multipage list of possible "side" effects distributed with them. 

Lithium has been a lifechanger for me, including in some interpersonal-skills areas that were blind spots my entire life until I started taking it (long resisted). Without "side" effects--even the typical "lithium tremor" went away. Note, too that it helps me in ways above and beyond "treating bipolar disorder," and in so doing, it acted in a similarly holistic way to what I described for desert willow in my previous post.  

But I know people whose symptoms it worsened and who couldn't tolerate it at all. On the other hand, I've tried medications that seemed to do nothing whatsoever for me, good or bad, that were lifechangers for people I knew. And a medication that had the opposite of intended effect (have had this with herbs too). And a medication which didn't do what it was supposed to do until a dose at which I couldn't stay awake.

All this sounds a whole lot like herbal medicine, and psych doctors at least are aware that Pill:Ill isn't a one-to-one ratio. Much of the time, they employ trial and error, and I wonder how valuable it would be for them to learn the herbalist/vitalist approach of looking at the patient as a whole and seeing which medication might be most apt given what they can understand of that patient's constitution.

And that really is the difference between the two systems: herbalism looks at an individual as a whole, during their lifetime, and aims at maintaining health, where maintenance involves infusions and broths, tonic herbs and lifestyle habits, with decoctions and tinctures for more acute situations (broadly speaking). Our modern "conventional medicine" used to be based on this design but nowadays tends to be focused more at the acute end, including daily medication (looks like maintenance) when someone is already sick and may not have become sick had they practiced healthy lifestyle beforehand.

But there's even crossover here. Herbal medicine employs some highly toxic plants in certain acute situations. And "regular doctors" sometimes recommend low-dose aspirin as a maintenance item to support cardiovascular health, or chromium for blood sugar health.

Hey guys, we're all human beings, and therefore whether we know it or not, we're all engaged in healing of some sort. I love working with plants so deeply, but I think the "never-the-twain-shall-meet" divide between "herb" and "drug" is harmful. It's all medicine. Lithium carbonate is great medicine for me (and elemental lithium was ineffective, ftr), but hops is a terrible medicine for me. Should I eschew the former because I pick it up at the pharmacy and embrace the latter because I could grow it in my yard?

About the Author

Ela Harrison

Ela is a wordsmith and herb lover who has lived in many places and currently resides in Tucson, AZ.

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